Here's a Window into the Pro-Trump Propaganda Machine

The rise of Donald Trump, American president, has encouraged people of a certain persuasion to say the quiet parts out loud. No need to really pretend anymore that you believe America is a nation of immigrants, open to anyone who will work hard and embrace the values of our society. No need to pretend that you want people to immigrate here, you just want them to "wait in line" and do so legally. After all, the president supports cutting legal immigration in half. There are still some customary head-fakes towards the old conservative line, but for the most part, Trump and his supporters feel empowered to attack even the most seemingly benign principles of a modern democratic society, like the value of "diversity."

In an astounding segment on Fox News Thursday night, Tucker Carlson spelled out the new line: the concept of America as a melting pot is a lie sold to you by politicians.

"Diversity is our strength: It's our new national motto," Carlson said disparagingly, "soon to replace the outdated and in fact polar opposite sentiment 'e pluribus unum' on our currency."

"E pluribus unum" means "out of many, one," and originally referred to the union of the 13 colonies. In the centuries since, however, it has also come to describe the population of America: people from every continent and country, every race, creed, and ethnicity, who come here and unite under our flag and the foundational principles of the United States: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, equality before the law. (We often fall short of our principles in practice, but the history of America is a history of striving to get closer to them.) For some reason, though, Carlson seems to think that "unity" and "diversity" are diametrically opposed: that people who come from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds cannot agree on a shared set of principles under which to live in a society. Carlson says we don't have to all look alike or come from the same places, but the entire segment is constructed to suggest the opposite.

"The less we have in common, the stronger we are?" he asked rhetorically. "Is a marriage stronger when spouses have radically different beliefs? Are you closer to your kids when you share no common points of reference? Do you speak the same language as your best friend? Could you be best friends if you didn't?"

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The whole point is the most important beliefs are not radically different. People may have different religious views, but they agree they both have the right to their own beliefs. At least they used to. It seems like Carlson doesn't believe people of certain backgrounds can subscribe to the American idea. His namecheck of "language" is no mistake: that's meant to give his viewers (who are overwhelmingly older and of a certain complexion) a flashback to the time they had to dial 1 for English. This is all meant to sow anxiety, to remind the viewer that the demographics of the country are changing and that is something to be feared.

Carlson built up to his grand flourish on the dark specter of diversity by providing some evidence-like objects for his ultimate thesis. He focused on illegal immigration and on one state in particular: Arizona. With a massive screen behind him reading "ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIME," Carlson dove into some "new data." Throughout, he characterized his opponents' position in various forms similar to this:

"There is a striking fanaticism to their position. Illegal immigrants must be kept in this country at all costs, no matter what."

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Except the Democrats' concern, along with that of some Republicans, is getting protections for DREAMers, the people brought here as children by undocumented parents who have subsequently gone on to get their education and go into the workforce or the military. DREAMers cannot have a felony conviction or "pose a threat to homeland security or public safety." They made no choice to break our immigration laws—they were children—and they have demonstrated that they will contribute to society. This is in many cases the only country they've ever known. This is not blanket amnesty for all illegal immigrants, and no one is suggesting "illegal immigrants are terrific people—every single one of them," as Carlson put it. You'll also notice that Carlson did not say they were brought as children, but used the less humanizing language of "minors." The screen behind him was worse, using the ultimate dehumanizing term, "aliens."

But back to Arizona, where "illegal immigrants commit two-and-a-half times as many murders as American citizens do," according to Carlson, and "overall, they're about twice as likely to be convicted of crimes of all kinds." It's unclear where he's getting this data, but it may be a study from John Lott at the conservative Crime Prevention Research Center. That study found "the murder and manslaughter rate for illegal immigrants is 2.7 times higher" in Arizona, but The Washington Post also included the following while discussing the findings:

Lott’s review appears to be unique — no other comparable research on state correctional data has been conducted — and an outlier, since the majority of other studies have come to diametrically opposite conclusions, including those in peer-reviewed publications.

So it appears Carlson, who previously claimed there "were few reliable numbers," found one study that backed his position after the other ones didn't. But it's at least a research study. When Carlson moved on to California, it was to even darker rhetorical territory. He highlighted the case of one illegal immigrant, Luis Bracamontes, who was accused of killing two police officers. Carlson showed the revolting video of Bracamontes bragging about how he'd like to kill more people.

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This is an exercise in propaganda. The TV host presents one study that suggests undocumented immigrants are more likely to commit violent crimes, then presents the most heinous possible example as representative of all undocumented immigrants. You thought his viewers were riled up before? Meanwhile, the vast majority of the research indicates there's no evidence the undocumented are more likely to commit crimes and that they're less likely to be arrested for drugs and alcohol. There's plenty of evidence illegal immigrants are actually significantly less likely to commit crimes and be incarcerated. Carlson is demonizing people by cherrypicking the worst possible case and presenting it as the median. By the way, what does Bracamontes have to do with DACA? He was deported and returned as an adult.

Ultimately, the Carlson segment is a window into the ahistorical, narrative-driven information ecosystem that has poisoned modern conservatism and, in recent years, given rise to Trumpist extremism. "Maybe we should have talked this through ahead of time," Carlson said of our value for diversity, completely ignoring that the entire history of America has been spent fighting over who should receive the full rights of citizenship and a seat at the national table. When everything is however you feel like it should be, you can justify anything. Unfortunately, this attitude is filtering down to millions of Americans, segment after segment, day after day.

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